With the recent uptick in Civil War rhetoric, Jeff and I thought it might be wise to reflect back on the brutal nature of civil wars and the moral imperative to avoid them at all costs.

To assist in this effort, we will turn to an Ancient Greek historian named Thucydides and focus on several passages detailing the Corcyraean Revolution. In the opening years of the Peloponnesian war, the island of Corcyra was engaged in a horrific civil war between Democrats and Oligarchs.

Thucydides tells us how "Both sides were engaged in butchering those of their fellow citizens whom they regarded as their enemies…Death thus raged in every shape; and, there was no length to which violence did not go."

From our reflections on the Corcyraean Revolution, we hope to steer people away from escalating the political divide and encourage moderating any hostile, uncompromising opinions of their fellow citizens. Politics is the challenge of figuring out how 330 million different people can live together happily in the same society; civil wars represent a total failure in this challenge.

Once we grasp the true nature and moral hazards of civil wars, it should be clear that unifying with your fellow citizens is a whole lot easier than trying to subvert and destroy them.